It is no news that the highly endowed Kogi State is among the least developed states in Nigeria. Even if the massive potentials are not harnessed, other states that gets same allocation as Kogi state are miles ahead of us in terms of development.
Yes, we have leadership problem in Kogi State but I dare to say that the electorate are the major cause of Kogi’s problems.
Go round different sectors of the economy across the world, Kogi indigenes are thriving, contributing to the development of other states and countries. A great number of these achievers are not proud of their state. Some have tried coming home on rescue mission but the electorate, as usual, rejected them. A great number of them may never return, they have left us to our self-made fate.
The naked truth is that Kogi electorate do not know what they want. A confirmed idiot with loads of cash is more valued than men and women with capacity.
Kogi politicians spend the highest amount of money to win common party primaries! Party delegates shamelessly run after aspirants to make merchandise their voting rights. During elections, Kogi electorate will gladly sell their votes in exchange for as low as N2,000! How can you experience good leadership when you elect place aspirants on OLX?
Elections are at the corner, electorate here see it as a seasonal festival for making money. Any aspirant that is not throwing cash around is considered an unserious aspirant, regardless of his or her agenda for the state. Before the primaries, we have already destroyed intelligent, well-meaning aspirants because of the size of their pockets.
Every election year, we sell the development of our state for as low as N2,000. Are we better than the Biblical Esau? We keep eating our seed and hoping for a miraculous harvest!
Today, I see Kogi electorate hail some politicians who have no clear cut agenda for the people other than the fact that they have doled out or promised to dole out some cash. Generosity is not bad but it is not a yardstick for measuring capacity!
So long as our values remain the same, we will never elect credible leaders and we will remain where we are. There are no two ways about that.
After we have successfully elected idiots into offices, we resume our cycle of complains, threatening not to vote for some leaders again only to vote for a worse idiot in the next election. Our case is near hopeless.
Without mincing words, Kogi electorate lacks capacity to elect credible leaders. It is not in us! The issue of ethnicity and religion are not as bad as the commercialization of political processes in Kogi State.
I read with disgust that a former acting governor said Senator Dino Melaye is an ‘eat alone senator’. Imagine the mentality of a former acting governor of my state!
So, his standard for measuring eligibility for re-election is when an elected officer does not ‘eat alone’.
In ten years to come, our children will be eating or starving from the decision we make today.
– Titi Balogun writes from Lokoja.
